If you like Winch you may also like Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions [also online pdf] where he outlines the problem of scientists [unrelated to scientism and / or positivism] catching on to a pop science phwenomenon and running with it before the facts are in.

This is called scientism, the politicization of science. It is the ideology favored by all the scientists st0ts mentioned (idk about Cox though), plus a handful of climatologists, plus a few others in unrelated disciplines. It normally used by public figures though, not actual scientists. It’s very popular on the internet for some reason.

Basically, SCIENCE is transforming itself into a social or political science. Fuck that. Science has a place and purpose, and that is in the realm of rationality with the intention of achieving some form of impersonal objectivity based on empirical facts. Once it discards that, there’s no reason why it should be taken any more seriously than the religious beliefs popular-scientists try to expel from public discourse.

I’m not sure if OT would care for the link but try Peter Winch who first described scientism and the damaging effect it has.

First link shows Obama has high popularity because of the rising economy, though not necessarily because of his policies. Relevance?

Second link indicates Putin is a ‘strong man’ leader [not news], who also has high popularity because of the economy – except it’s about to go into the toilet as a direct result of his policies. He’s also popular because he manipulates the press, distorts the stats, and uses an impreesive array of rhetorical tricks to paint his foreign policy in terms patriotic [read: dumb] and xenophobic Russians can get behind. Nice source.

Using appeal to emotion through negative language isn’t very rational. I didn’t take you for a hypocrite.

Your mistake. I suggest you read up on my SD alt posts don’t bother they’re pretty boring, I use logical fallacies all the time. That one is actually more ‘hearsay’ than appeal to emotion.

As you point out, even Krauss’s original quote is silly; we could as easily say our atoms all originated from the big bang but that doesn’t say much about physics.

Krauss is a pop-physics scientist, meaning he specializes in repackaging actual science into IFLS-style factoids for general consumption. I read his physics of star trek book. It was entertaining but not especially enlightening. He’s also an anti-theist / new atheist, which makes that stardust quote especially suspicious to me. It seems like an attempt to replace creationism with an equally vacuous conception of the beginnings of life. It’s scientific, but not TOO scientific – you don’t have to think too hard about it, and if you do [as with creationism] it doesn’t take long for it to sound trite and simplistic.

Second, Gabidou99 is right that people here don’t know anything about autism. The term keeps getting thrown around as if there’s one type or that everyone who has it is the same. There’s separate specific types and the severity/functioning of the individual differs.

I think it’s mostly meant as an ironic in-joke as many OTers [not just the ones being labeled] are probably on the spectrum.

The whole concept boggles my mind at times. It’s fascinating to imagine trillions of universes where things are slightly different or incredibly different. You could be in a universe in which you are a different species and/or gender. Or you could not even exist in another one. The list can go on and on with changes in physics of the universes. Perhaps you’re lighter on another earth because the gravity is low, or it could be otherwise.

I’ve always found it to be more in the territory of theology than science. It’s like debating the idea of an afterlife – we can guess at it but there’s no way to verify any guesses, so to me it’s never held much interest.

Naw, I just don’t really care what happens at your high school one day a year, or a 2min blurb from some gamer chick who wants to have a gay drow, or rainbow whoppers or any of the other silly shit you’re raging about here.

Well, clearly you do or else you wouldn’t have carried on for the past 2 pages. I gave you the sources, If you don’t care enough to read them then well… We have nothing to continue this pointless flame war.

Yeah, I read the wiki link and the bk link and watched 2mins of WoW q&A. So what? Stop being a big baby ffs, and stop pretending to be upset for some noble principles. You’re an obnoxious high school kid uncomfortable with visible minorities and angry that the teacher isn’t giving you a pat on the head like the other kids..

Naw, I just don’t really care what happens at your high school one day a year, or a 2min blurb from some gamer chick who wants to have a gay drow, or rainbow whoppers or any of the other silly shit you’re raging about here.

If your family is sufficiently well-off you can hire tutors, or just flunk and do a year of upgrading. Kids from poor families get fucked, and that’s not even getting into paying for university. So no, qualifications is not the single determiner.

I find it incredibly ironic that you were calling me butthurt a page ago when THIS is what you meant by

Arrogance. If society doesn’t bow to them then you are a bigot, homophobe worst than hitler, Satan-spawn etc. They have to gloat and force it on everybody and everything.

Like I said at the start you’re probably not a bigot [although you seem to be a christian so who knows] but you sure don’t know much about gays. You could’ve really had a good case for the stupidity and heavyhandedness of queer activism, but you don’t look for anything beyond your narrow, self-entitled, adolescent angst, and your petty anxieties about minority takeover.

It’s been awhile since high school for me but I don’t remember needing a gold star so I’d feel just as coddled as the other kids. That seems like a primary school issue. I also don’t honestly know if you’re upset because the gay kids are missing out on their chance to talk in class [sitting in silence sounds pretty boring] or because they should have to share in the misery of the rest of the class.

And ultimately I don’t gaf. One of the more valuable lessons k-12 drills into you is that life’s not fair.

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